Part 15
were founded on the statements of Nennius, a British writer of the IXth century, concerning Irish pearls. In passing, it is worthy of notice that Nennius recorded also that the princes of Ireland hung them behind their ears; a fashion similar to that of Persian and Athenian youth many centuries earlier. From Cardanus, Moore learned of the ancient fable that pearls were improved by leaving them awhile with doves, and utilizes the fancy in "A Dream of Antiquity" thus:
As pearls, we're told, that fondling doves Have played with, wear a smoother whiteness.
An early reference to the gem is found in his "Odes of Anacreon" No. XXII:
Or even those envious pearls that show So faintly round that neck of snow—
If this ode was really written by Anacreon, that poet must have been more familiar with pearls than some later Grecian writers. A similar idea quite as beautifully expressed occurs in "The Loves of the Angels."
Then too the pearl from out its shell Unsightly, in the sunless sea, (As 'twere a spirit, forced to dwell In form unlovely) was set free, And round the neck of woman threw A light it lent and borrowed too.
Unlike most of the poets, Moore does not describe the sparkling dew-drop as pearly and his references to tears of pearls include the idea of metamorphosis, as in "The Light of the Haram."
And precious their tears as that rain from the sky, Which turns into pearls as it falls in the sea.
These lines embody the ancient Hindu superstition which is also apparent in his "Lines to—:"
Put off the fatal zone you wear, The shining pearls around it Are tears, that fell from Virtue there, The hour when Love unbound it.
In his adoration of female beauty, he often holds the lustrous gem as a foil to the exceeding charms of woman, or to lift her to higher esteem by holding her, for preciousness, above the gem. Beyond all other things most lovely, only woman was lovelier yet. In "To weave a Garland for the Rose," he writes:
Where is the pearl whose orient lustre Would not, beside thee, look less bright?
And in one of the "Odes to Nea," he expresses the jealous regard of love thus:
If I were yonder conch of gold And thou the pearl within it placed, I would not let an eye behold The sacred gem my arms embraced.
Of the threads in which the woof of "The Genius of Harmony" is woven, there is one that sings thus to the passing of the shuttle:
To the small rill, that weeps along Murmuring o'er beds of pearl.
Betraying as he did so frequently in his poems, such a high regard for the pearl, it is somewhat curious that the gem was used descriptively in connection with himself. N. P. Willis, describing Thomas Moore as he met him at Lady Blessington's said of him, "His forehead shines with the lustre and smooth polish of a pearl."
Schiller takes the gem from the warm touch of human sentiment and builds it into a grand conception, poetical but untrue to Nature. In common with other poets, he credits the pearl with a play of color seldom found even to a limited degree though it does occur in the mother-of-pearl. In "Parables and Riddles," he describes the rainbow thus:
A bridge of pearls its fabric weaves, A gray sea arching proudly over.
In "The Celebrated Woman" he alludes twice to pearls; once when the husband, bemoaning the passage of his choice vintages down the throats of unappreciative celebrities, realizes that the only reward from his spouse for his endurance of it is, "sour looks—deep sighs." Because he has no stomach for her notables and their wit, she regrets—
That such a pearl should fall to swine—
Later on the husband refers satirically to the meeting of "learned Dons and folks of fashion" at their resorts, where he says:
All sorts of Fame sit cheek-by-jowl, Pearls in that string—the Table d'Hote.
Few later writers have set the pearl in as wide a range of ideas or in language as beautiful as Edmund Spenser. The tears of Stella in "The Mourning Muse of Thestylis" are more precious and gem-like than those in any lines which have followed until now. In these lines they are priceless jewels royally set.
And from those two bright starres to him sometime so deere, Her heart sent drops of pearle, which fell in foyson downe Twixt lilly and the rose.
As a means to wake imagination to the physical charms of woman his use of the gem is equally happy and graceful, for there is always a soul in the flesh of his beauty as when he depicts the charms of a fair one in one of his "Sonnets."
But fairest she, when so she doth display The gate with pearles and rubyes richly dight; Through which her words so wise do make their way To bear the message of her gentle spright.
In another place he expresses the worship of his love in this fashion:
For loe, my love doth in her selfe containe All this worlds riches that may farre be found; If Pearles, her teeth be Pearles, both pure and round.
Several of his poems show the fashion of pearls in his day as for instance where he describes the Scarlet Lady in "The Faerie Queene" as—
A goodly Lady clad in scarlet red, Purfled with gold and pearle of rich assay.
and Hymen in "Epithalamion"—
Her long loose yellow locks lyke golden wyre, Sprinckled with perle.
There is a passing breath of spice-laden gales and the wonder magic of ships in far-off seas, carrying to perils and adventure men seeking the treasures of strange lands, while he tells in Virgil's Gnat of the shepherd's content:
Ne ought the whelky pearles esteemeth hee, Which are from Indian seas brought far away.
Poets are reminded not only of the teeth and neck of beauty by the luster of the pearl but of the forehead also. Whittier like Tennyson gives to woman a brow of pearl. In "Memories" the girl has—
Eyes glad with smiles, and brow of pearl,
and in "Stanzas," he places the beauty of flesh above that of the dainty jewel thus:
O'er a forehead more pure than the Parian stone— Shaming the light of those Orient pearls Which bind o'er its whiteness thy soft wreathing curls.
Similarly Heinrich Heine in Longfellow's translation of "The Sea hath its Pearls" says:
And fairer than pearls and stars Flashes and beams my love.
Probably in no poem is the pearl referred to so frequently or with so wide significance as in Whittier's "The Vaudois Teacher." The missionary in his guise of peddler having obtained an audience with the fair chatelaine, while extolling his wares, says:
And my pearls are pure as thy own fair neck, with whose radiant light they vie.
Naturally, this wisdom of the serpent with which his innocence was garnished brought favorable response:
And the lady smiled on the worn old man through the dark and clustering curls, Which veiled her brow as she bent to view his silks and glittering pearls.
After she had bought of his trinkets, the old teacher carefully introduces the covered object of his visit.
Oh, lady fair, I have yet a gem which a purer lustre flings, Than the diamond flash of the jewelled crown on the lofty brow of Kings, A wonderful pearl of exceeding price, whose virtue shall not decay.
This statement at once arouses a keen interest, for in those days great gems came from unexpected sources and by unlikely hands and coming seldom, excited desire to an extent unknown in these abundant times. Glancing at the mirrored pearls in her own hair the lady says:
Bring forth thy pearl of exceeding worth, thou traveller gray and old— And name the price of thy precious gem, and my page shall count thy gold.
Here is the golden opportunity of the zealot. From its place of concealment beneath the tempting wares in his pack he takes a shabby little book and gives it to her saying:
Here, lady fair, is the pearl of price, may it proove as such to thee, Nay—keep thy gold—I ask it not; for the Word of God is free!
Nor does the religious mind of Whittier fail to remember the gates of pearl, for in "Ego" he speaks of
The pearl gates of the Better Land.
Carlyle makes reference to the gem in a line greater in conception and more poetic than most of those which occur in the rhymes of the poets—"She died in beauty, like a pearl dropped from some diadem."
In Ruffini's "Dr. Antonio," man and woman are set in marriage as a foil and complement of each other though the metaphor shows some misunderstanding of the qualities of gems, for black diamonds are not as fiery as others. The lines are:
The fiery black diamond casting lustre over the Oriental pearl: the Oriental pearl in return lending softness to the black diamond.
Dryden does not forget pearls when he caparisons the royal mighty and in "Palamon and Arcite" fitly thus describes Emetrius, King of Inde:
His surcoat o'er his arms was cloth of Thrace, Adorned with pearls all orient, round and great.
It is remarkable that so many poets have seen in the pearl a simile for raindrops and dew. Among them, Browning in the song from "Pippa Passes," sees—
The hill-side's dew-pearled.
At its best, the pearl is not luminous, neither does it flash nor sparkle: the quality of it is softly lustrous as of light that smolders; but transferring by imagery the mist-white texture of dew when it is spread over leaf and grass blade, to the transparent dew-drop, poets see in the sparkling globule, which in the sun is of diamantine brilliancy, a simile of the pearl.
In "By the Fireside" however, Browning creates a rain of pearls, a truer figure than pearly raindrops:
Break the rosary in a pearly rain, And gather what we let fall.
The metaphors of Lowell are more true to the nature of the pearl and its characteristics than those of many poets. One, seldom used though most appropriate, occurs in "The First Snow Fall."
And the poorest twig on the elm-tree Was ridged inch deep with pearl.
Another instance of combined truth and poetry may be found in "An Invitation":
A cloud Byzantium newly born, With flickering spires and dome of pearl.
And in "Pictures from Appledore" the same poet in the embodiment of a delightful idea in words says of the moon:
Rather to call it the canoe Hollowed out of a single pearl.
In these illustrations, imagination is true to nature on either hand, for the beady ridges of the half melted or frozen snow on the tree twigs, the soft luster of a white cloud dome and the pale round moon, alike are characterized by beauties which are pearly. In his more involved metaphor the same nice avoidance of incongruity is noticeable. Though raindrops are not pearly, the white fringe of a shore-driven wave is, which he notes in "Sea-Weed":
For the same wave that rims the Carib shore With momentary brede of pearl and gold.
There is a hint of Cleopatra and Sir Thomas Gresham in his lines "To H. W. L."
Let them drink molten pearls nor dream the cost;
and in the lines from "Memoria Positum" there is an understanding of the processes by which the gem grows:
This death hath far choicer ends Than slowly to impearl in hearts of friends;
and in the poetic fancy in "A Familiar Epistle to a Friend"—
Old sorrows crystallized into pearls.
Nor does he omit the time-honored custom of poets to place the gem among the chief jewels of the great and in the mouth of beauty, for in "The Singing Leaves" he makes the King's eldest daughter ask of her royal father when he journeys:
O, bring me pearls and diamonds great,
and in "A Fable for Critics" he says:
Your goddess of freedom, a tight, buxom girl, With lips like a cherry and teeth like a pearl.
Bryant does not often allude to pearls, but in two instances, both in "The Flood of Years," they appear in beautiful setting. In the first:
A beam like that of moonlight turns the spray To glistening pearls.
Later on, describing the ocean of the past, he sees—
Dim glimmerings of lost jewels, far within The sleeping waters, diamond, sardonyx, Ruby and topaz, pearl and chrysolite.
The general use of pearls in the barbaric splendor of the great in the days of Rome and Egypt and Persia, appears in Tasso's "Jerusalem Delivered." In the wizard's dwelling:
Nor failed there urns of crystal, pearl, and gold,
and,
High on the Soldan's helm, in scales of pearl A rampant dragon grinn'd malignant things;
and also,
The Pastors of the flocks Have on their sacerdotal albs, which pass In front divided o'er their golden frocks, Clasp'd with aigraffes of pearl.
In the review of the oriental hordes, Armida's car is thus described,
Her car, that glorious as Aurora's roll'd, With rubies, pearls, and hyacinths glisten'd clear.
Among those who passed the Egyptian prince, were:
The Islanders with fleecy curls, Whose homes are compassed by th' Arabian waves; By whom those shells which breed the Persian pearls Are dived and fish'd for, in their green sea caves.
The name of the gem is used in rare fashion in picturing the enchanted wood through which Rinaldo wanders:
Impearl'd with manna was each fresh leaf nigh.
And twice does the sweat of the human face become pearly in the poet's imagination: once when Armida watches Rinaldo sleeping:
The living heat-dews that impearl'd his face, She with her veil wiped tenderly away.
In the second instance, speaking of Armida, the poet says:
She dies Of the sweet passion, and the heat that pearls, Yet more her ardent aspect beautifies.
Thomson sees pearls only in the dew-impearled earth, and one must admit, after looking upon the liquid globules hanging in rows from the spreading twigs of trees before the morning sun has found them in their shaded quarters, that the pendent spheres are suggestive, and that the poet's eye needs but little assistance from imagination to see in them the soft round gems of the ocean.
In all ages, prose and fiction have treated of pearls as a form of exceeding preciousness and a chief evidence of high station and barbaric splendor. The lute of poetry has held few additional strings. Modern writers have added little to the imaginations of the ancients. All the changes made by successive poets have been rung on the tears, dew-drops, and beauty's teeth, handed down from long ago.
The wide ranges of the pearl's modest worth, exalted purity, and singular beauty, yet remain to illustrate the thoughts of future genius. Imagination has not yet brooded often over the humble and distorted creatures, whose gnarled and twisted forms, lying among their myriad shapely brethren are evidence of a precious sacrifice of self to leave a heritage of beauty; nor dreamed of the silent acres under turbulent waters where the gem, one day to adorn the neck of beauty or the diadem of royalty, is reared. What play for imagination lies between the birth of this creation of one of the humblest of Earth's creatures, and the high placement to which it rises as soon as it is discovered.
There are deserted wastes of sand and water under torrid skies, populated almost momentarily with teeming multitudes whose jargon fills the former silences with a world wide medley of tongues. As in a dream, the tremulous air is stirred by the struggling movement of naked slaves, turbanned orientals, men from all lands of the occident, the moving throng weaving constantly new patterns from the variegated colors and fantastic costumes of living threads. And everywhere, beneath the prosaic motion of labor and trading, is the quiver of hope, the excitement of the gambler; the poetry of human passions, unseen, but felt.
There are in unfrequented seas, where some lonely atoll draws its circle round a still lagoon, treasures greater than its cargo and the stately ship sailing heedless by. So like the undiscovered pearls of the ocean's bed, the universe holds an exhaustless store of thoughts and truths for those who come after the discoverers of this age. Thought runs in grooves and the grooves outlast many generations; scarcely in a cycle does one look over the ridge and find a species foreign to the rut.
Within the walls which the past builds for the present it is more easy to adopt than to bring forth, and so the ancient metaphors, age after age, are with some changes of raiment thrown back upon the world again. But in this new era of acquisition, while this sea-gem is again lifted to the serene heights of most exalted favor, perhaps it will not only shine upon the persons of the fair, but adorn, in simile and metaphor as beautiful as the old, the pages of romance and poetry.
GLOSSARY
ABALONE.—Name given on the California coast and in the United States to the Haliotis.
BALL-PEARL.—Name given to round pearls by pearlers at the inland fisheries of the United States.
BAROQUE.—A pearly formation of irregular shape.
BASE.—A basic price, subject to the square of the pearl's weight.
BASKETS.—Brass sieves used in India for separating pearls of different sizes.
BLACK-SHELL.—Pearl oyster shells of which the nacreous lining has a black-edge.
BLISTER.—A piece of the mother-of-pearl lining of a pearl-oyster shell, raised above the surface like a blister.
BLUEBACKS.—Shell of a variety of Haliotis.
BLUE-PEARLS.—Dark, slaty blue-white pearls, principally from the Mexican coast.
BOMBAY PEARLS.—Fine pearls from the Arabian and Red Seas, so named because marketed through that city.
BUTTON PEARLS.—Shaped like a dome, high or low, rising from a plane and called "high buttons," "buttons" or "low buttons," accordingly.
CLAMMER.—One who fishes for mussels by dredging for the shells principally.
DEAD PEARLS.—Pearls with a chalky or waxy skin having little or no luster.
DRESS.—Diving apparatus consisting of a one piece dress from the neck down, corselet, helmet, air-pipes and life-line.
DROP-PEARL.—Ovoid, or obovoid, not necessarily of perfect shape.
DRILLED PEARLS.—Pearls with one hole for setting on peg, or quite through the centre for stringing. Chinese drill two or three small holes half way between circumference and bottom, for holding-wires.
EGG PEARLS.—Ovoid: shaped like an egg.
FLAT.—In connection with price quotation means, price per grain regardless of size.
FRESH-WATER PEARLS.—Pearls taken from inland streams.
GREEN EARS.—Shell of Haliotis having green mother-of-pearl lining.
HALF PEARLS.—Round pearls sawed in half.
HELMET.—Diving head-gear.
LINGAHS.—Pearl oyster shells from the Arabian Sea and others of similar size and quality.
MADRAS PEARLS.—Fine white pearls from the Ceylon fisheries, so called because marketed principally in that city.
MANUL.—Loose or soft sand sea bottom (Ceylon).
MULTIPLE.—Price of pearls subject to the multiple of weight.
MUSSEL-EGG.—Name given to pearls by Tennesseans.
NACRE.—The substance of which pearls and the lining of pearl-shells consists.
NAKED DIVING.—Diving without any appliances.
ORIENT.—As applied to pearls, the luster of the skin.
ORIENTAL PEARLS.—Generally, pearls from salt water; specifically, pearls from the Indian Seas.
OUNCE PEARLS.—Poor grades sold by the ounce.
PAAR.—Ceylon name for rock or hard bottom oyster-bed.
PEARLER.—One who fishes for mussels for the pearls.
PEAR-SHAPE.—Shaped like a pear; obovoid.
PEELER.—A pearl with an imperfect skin, the removal of which would improve the pearl.
RED-EARS.—Abalone shell with pearly red interior.
ROSE-PEARLS.—Pink, iridescent, fresh-water baroques.
SEED-PEARLS.—Very small round pearls.
SLUGS.—Nacreous excrescences from the Unio.
SKIN.—As applied to pearls, the outer layer of nacre.
SQUARE.—Method of reckoning the cost of a pearl of any size at a lot price, by the square of price given, with the grain as a unit.
STRAWBERRY-PEARLS.—Large, pink, iridescent and lustrous baroques, fairly regular in shape, with the appearance of being thickly sanded under the nacre.
SWEET-WATER PEARLS.—Pearls from fresh-water.
TRUE-PEARLS.—Pearls formed of nacre as distinguished from similar formations which are not nacreous.
TWINNED-PEARLS.—Pearls enveloped together in one or more layers of nacre.
WHITE-SHELL.—Pearl-oyster shells with nacre white to the edge.
YELLOW-SHELL.—Pearl-oyster shells with yellowish nacre.
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PEARLS AND SHELLS FROM THE VARIOUS FISHERIES
ARABIAN SEA.—Pearls have fine orient, but the color inclines to yellow.
Shells are larger than those of Ceylon but of little value for mother-of-pearl: iridescent, black-edge m. of p.; known as Lingahs.
AROE.—Pearls usually good orient; many of irregular shape.
Shells are of medium size, black-edge and iridescent.
AUCKLAND.—Pearls white, but not remarkable for luster.
Shells, medium size, black-edge m. of p.
AUSTRALIA.—Pearls of Australia generally are of good color, but not as lustrous as those of other sections.
Shells usually large and heavy and the nacre is white.
BANDAS.—Pearls good.
Shells are small but heavy and good; black to greenish edge nacre.
CEYLON.—Pearls average finest in the world for orient and color.
Shells, small and valueless for m. of p.
COSTA RICA.—Pearls good average.
Shells, medium size, greenish yellow edge.
EGYPTIAN (RED SEA).—Pearls good but run yellow.
Shells, medium size and nacre has greenish edge.
FIJI.—Practically the same as the Bandas.
GAMBIER.—Pearls good, many fancy colors.
Shells, large, fine nacre with very black edge.
HAITI.—Pearls fine, shells good.
MANILLA.—(Includes Batjan, Bima, Ceram, Salawatti, Sooloo, etc.) Pearls, good color and orient.
Shells, large, good, yellow edge nacre.
MERGUIAN ARCHIPELAGO.—Pearls and shells similar to the Manillas.
MEXICO AND PANAMA.—Pearls fair; blacks, grays and fancy colors often fine.
Shells, medium size: nacre has greenish edge.
SOUTH SEA ISLANDS.—Pearls usually fine.
Shells generally large, heavy and fine black edge m. of p.
VENEZUELA.—Pearls, good luster and color—many fine baroques.
Shells: small, beautifully iridescent, but valueless.
PEARLS.
Hardness, 3.5-4 Sp. Gr., 1.59-1.62
COMPOSITION.
Carbonate of Lime 91.72 Organic matter 5.94 Water 2.34
INDEX
A
Abalone, 92, 170, 199, 244.
Acapulco, 203.
Advance of price, 277.
Aelonians, 93.
Alexander, 50.
Ancient fisheries, 212.
Angel's tears, 315.
Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, 49.
Aquila Jewels, 85.
Arabian Sea, 49, 51, 201.
Aragonite, 167.
Aripo, 219.
Arkansas, discovery of pearls in, 259.
Aroo Islands, 199, 202.
Aryans, 64.
Atokha, Virgin of, 329.
Auris Marina, 246.
Aurora Shells, 246.
Australia, 201, 249.
Avicula fucata, 127. squamulosa, 127, 239.
B
Bagdad, 213.
Bahamas, 95.
Bahrein, 212.
Ball pearl, 44.
Banda Islands, 202.
Baroques, 82, 91, 155, 161.
Base price, 276.
Baskets, 228.
Batjan, 200.
Bazaruto Islands, 200, 233.
Beira, 233.
Beresford Hope pearl, 324, 326.
Black-Shell, 144.
Blister, 92.
Blue-point, 268.
Bochart, 57.
Bones, pearls called, 50, 61.
Boss, 140.
Breastplate, Jewish High Priest's, 56, 61.
Breeding of pearls, 312.
Brown pearls, 329.
Bull-head, 266.
Butterfly, 268.
Byssus, 243.
C
Cacique, 76.
Calcospherules, 154.
Caligula, 52.
Campeche, Gulf of, 241.
Cape San Lucas, 242.
Cariaco, Gulf of, 238.
Castiglione necklace, 84.
Catifa, 326.
Celebrated Pearls, 324.
Ceram, 200.
Cestodes, 173.
Chank, 15, 98.
Charles V., 47.
Charlotte Bay, 249.
Cheval paar, 221.
Chilaw pearl banks, 219.
Chiriqui, 237.
Chunam, 231.
Clammers, 262, 282.
Clam pearls, 97.
Cleopatra's pearl, 52, 320, 326.
Clinch River, 260, 263.
Clione, 154.
Clodius, 52, 327.
Coatzacoalcos, 241.
Coche, 238.
Colombia, 236, 241.
Color of pearls, 101.
Columbus, 46.
Conch, 16, 94.
Conchiolin, 133.
Cortez, 46, 242.
Cracked pearls, 119, 301.
Crotalia, 53, 80.
Cubagua, 46, 238.
Culture pearls, 299.
D
Dahlak, 212.
Dasyus, 64.
Death of Pearls, 316.
Deer-horn, 267.
De Soto, 46, 47, 76.
Devadatta, 98.
Dew-drop origin of P., 311.
Diamonds, 44, 56, 70.
Diving, Dress, 178, 188, 192. Naked, 178.
Dredging, 282.
Dress, 189.
Dudley pearls, 329.
Dutch Indies, 200, 232.
E
Ear of Venus, 93.
Ear-shell, 93, 245.
Ecuador, 203, 237.
Edward VII., 82.
Elenchi, 80.
Elizabeth, Queen, 48.
El Tirano, 237.
Exmouth Gulf, 249.
F
Facts and Fancies, 311.
Farsan, 212.
Fiji Islands, 202.
File-fish, 174.
Fisheries, Arabian Sea, 212. Ancient, 201, 255. Australian, 194, 202, 249.